Motor vehicles are generally equipped with safety functions and/or vehicle-dynamics control functions, for example with ESP. Because the motor vehicles, especially those having a high degree of loading variation (such as commercial vehicles), can have very different driving characteristics in the loaded state than in the unloaded state, the location of the motor vehicle's center of gravity, in particular in the loaded state, plays an important role as an input variable for many control functions.
German Patent Application No. DE 10 2004 056 108 A1 describes a method for approximately determining the location of the center of gravity of a vehicle. In this, an estimated value for the location of the center of gravity of the vehicle in the longitudinal direction is determined from the longitudinal forces of the wheels, the slope angle of the road, the longitudinal acceleration of the vehicle, and the wheelbase.
A fundamental principle with these and other conventional methods is that at least one spatial coordinate of the center of gravity is assumed to be known and is predefined. Depending on the motor vehicle and the loading of the motor vehicle, however, the center of gravity can be greatly displaced in all three spatial directions with respect to the vehicle center. This applies in particular to small vans and/or to vehicle carrying loads on a roof-mounted luggage rack.